Luxury Real Estate

By Jean-Yves Piton

While recently reading the November 2008 Overseas Property Professional magazine (OPP), I came across great and innovative ideas shared by Lawrence Hefler in the article titled “It’s all in the name.”

Online marketing represents one key element of today’s marketing mix to connect with the highly affluent buyers. Agreeably, Mr. Hefler argues that the marketing mix must adopt a new focus to appeal to the wealthy through “consumer-focused brand marketing” and “relationship selling.” Precisely, the future of branding is about “targeted, objective, and consumer oriented messages that recognize consumer trends and behaviors.”

Above all, consistent service follow-through must become part of the business experience to be expected by affluent buyers and within the luxury real estate business model. Because status also means consistent superior service, superior quality and feeling special, wealthy buyers prefer collecting unique experiences over simply acquiring physical possessions. In other words, affluent buyers wish to collect superior experiences to go with the luxury goods they purchase.

Clearly, marketing in a competitive luxury real estate marketplace is taking a new dimension. Branding your firm and offering superior products is only part of today’s successful marketing mix. Developing superior relationships with and delivering superior service to affluent buyers will establish who the strongest luxury real estate firms are.